Chapter 64

Chapter 64: The White Oak Ran Into Duncan.

The White Oak had returned. After a long loss of contact and a drift off The route, this advanced steamship under the Explorer Association finally came back to the city-state of Pland.

Many people had been waiting for this ship to come home. Countless eyes stared at the silhouette that slowly drew closer over the sea, watching it with tense, almost gaze.

Inquisitor Vanna saw that, as soon as the White Oak’s whistle sounded, the people on the pier moved at once.

The workers in charge of mental guidance for docking ships were already in position. They began to send signals to the White Oak with lamps and flags. Guardians under the Church went to activate the Deep Sea sacred relics that had been placed all over Pier One the night before. These were many bronze Boundary Stele. The base of each stele was carved with the name of the storm Goddess Gamona, and the groove at the top was filled with holy oils and spices. Once these Boundary Stele were activated, the area where the White Oak would dock would be sealed off and become a “Sanctum” under the Goddess’s gaze.

Farther back stood Constables sent by City Hall. These ordinary people were not good at dealing with supernatural things, so their main job was to use heavy firepower to block every intersection. Ordinary guns and cannons could hardly deal with strange, shapeless curses. But if something with a solid body, something already under corruption, ran off the White Oak, then eight-millimeter bullets and four?pound guns would still be very useful.

Sometimes Vanna could not help feeling grateful for the progress of technology. These fruits of engineering gave weak, powerless ordinary people at least some strength to take part in events that involved the supernatural. The results of that progress were mixed, good and bad, but at least… support from rotary machine guns and artillery had greatly reduced the Church’s casualties in these past years.

Vanna’s gaze passed over the pier and went to the distant sea.

The White Oak let out a second blast from its whistle. Guided by the Light-Signal lamps on the shore, the ship began to slow. It then stopped at a distance from the pier.

A priest standing beside Vanna finally let out a small breath and said in a low voice: “The White Oak followed the order. It looks like the ship is still under ‘human’ control, at least.”

“We cannot say that yet. Many people under the influence of an Anomaly or Visions still looked normal until the very moment they changed,” Vanna shook her head. “Send the second set of signals. Dispatch the inspection boat. Tell the Coastal Guns to stay ready at all times. As soon as anything strange happens on that ship… open fire.”

The order from the Inquisitor spread down the chain very quickly. Since the White Oak’s communication device had already been damaged, the people on shore could only talk with the ship by lights and flags. After a complicated exchange of lamps and flag signals, three lights lit up at the bow of the White Oak. Right after that, a rope ladder dropped down from her side.

A small fast boat left the pier and rushed toward the White Oak, driven by a small Steam Engine.

A full Guardian squad rode that boat. It included eight combatants, one Commander, and one Deep Sea priest. These loyal Clerics lit incense on the small boat and chanted the holy name of the storm Goddess. When they came close to the White Oak, they did not board right away. They first circled once around the big ship and sprinkled Holy Oil mixed with seaweed extract into the nearby sea.

Once these oils fell into the sea, they began to glow faintly at once. The light slowly spread and joined together, until it formed a ring that fully wrapped around the White Oak.

Only after all this did the Clerics on the boat truly move in close to the White Oak and climb aboard along the rope ladder.

All of this fell into the eyes of Vanna up in the watchtower.

Letting a ship that had once gone missing at sea “come home” was extremely dangerous, especially when it was a long-range ship that had carried Anomalies. The White Oak could not come alongside the pier directly. First, it had to accept a boarding inspection from the small boat at a safe distance. Only after the first check showed no clear sign of corruption by an Eldritch God could it move closer to Pland’s pier. Even then, the people on the ship still could not disembark. They had to undergo a second round of checks by the Clergy. At the same time, the whole ship would face a much stricter, complete search and purification. After that, everyone on board would still have to stay under observation in the Cathedral on the pier for several days at the least, or several weeks at the longest. The entire ship also had to be fumigated with incense and purification for at least a week.

Only when all these steps were finished, and nothing went wrong at any point, would the civilized world dare to welcome these people who had gone astray at sea back home. If any step went wrong, the White Oak and her crew members would have to be buried in the ocean.

The storm Goddess would receive the souls of these poor people.

This rule, cold to the point of cruelty, did not come from anyone’s malice. It was the “way of survival” that human society had found after growing to this day.

Of course, there were also city-states that did not want to follow, or failed to follow, these harsh rules. Most of those city-states now appeared in the first two units of the second volume of the middle-school history textbook and were standard questions on the final exam.

Time passed second by second. Everyone waited for the Guardian squad that had boarded the ship to send back a signal. There were only two possible signals. If everything was safe, the squad would send a docking request through special Psychic Communication. If the ship had already fallen to corruption, the squad would fight until the last person and try to blow up the Nitroglycerin on their small boat before they all died.

On an Ocean-Going Vessel the size of the White Oak, if it really fell under deep corruption by Subspace or something like it, a small boarding party like this could not possibly come back alive.

Vanna crossed her arms and tapped lightly on the metal of her arm guard.

All of a sudden, the bell in the small Cathedral on the pier began to ring. The steam relief pipes on both sides of the bell tower let out three long blasts.

The priests in the Cathedral had received the coded message from the inspection squad. The Cathedral’s bells and whistle blasts now told every group on the pier:

The ship was safe. The White Oak was asking to dock, and there was a special situation to report.

Vanna finally let out a breath.

At least for now, that ship seemed normal. That alone was the best news.

As for the “special situation” to report… she was not surprised at all.

A ship that had gone missing in such a strange way coming back into port, and there was nothing special to report? That would have been the truly strange thing.

The White Oak slowly drew alongside the pier. This long-range ship that had gone through so many twists and turns finally came back to the pier of the civilized world. The people on board had not been allowed to disembark yet, but they could surely relax a little now.

More Church Guardians began to board in an orderly way to prepare for a full search and questioning. Vanna also left the watchtower. She personally led a group of priests down to the pier. She walked across the long gangway and finally set foot on the deck of the White Oak. There, on the foredeck, she saw the tall, broad-shouldered captain with graying hair.

The old captain looked a bit worn out. It was clear he had been working under heavy stress for too long. But when he saw the Church’s Inquisitor coming closer, the old man still straightened at once and stepped forward to meet Vanna.

“Hello, I am Inquisitor Vanna of the Deep Sea Church of the city-state of Pland, Captain Lawrence,” Vanna said. She did not like empty formalities, so she chose to get straight to the point. “Let us skip the self-introductions. First, I must apologize. I hope you and your crew members can understand these strict checks by the authority of the city-state and the Church.”

“Of course, Inquisitor,” Lawrence nodded at once. He had wanted to say “Inquisitor miss,” because Vanna looked about the same age as his own daughter, but at the last second he changed it to the more respectful title. “I expected this long ago. After all… we were out of contact for so long.”

Vanna nodded: “Tell me briefly what the White Oak went through. Why did you lose contact? And why did you later show up on an unregistered route? As for the cargo you were escorting, Anomaly 099, what is its status?”

At these words, Lawrence’s face filled with dismay and tension. He sighed and, almost without thinking, glanced quickly around. Only then did he speak slowly: “You may not believe this. We… ran into that legendary ship, the Vanished…”

Right in front of him, the stern-faced Inquisitor miss suddenly froze like stone. A strange expression fixed on her face.

Lawrence could not tell what this expression meant. To him, it looked almost the same as how he had felt a few days ago after being rammed by the Vanished.

“Inquisitor… ma’am?” Lawrence asked carefully. “You…”

“Captain Lawrence,” Vanna seemed to wake up all at once and stared hard at the captain. “Say that again.”

“I said you may not believe this…”

“The second half.”

“We ran into that legendary ship, the Vanished…”

“I believe you.”

Lawrence blinked: “Then…”

“You and your people may have to stay at the pier a few more days, Captain,” Vanna said with a very serious face. “This matter is serious. Very serious. You… wait. You ran into the Vanished, and everyone still lived?”

The Inquisitor miss’s expression shifted a little. A hint of doubt appeared in her eyes. Seeing this, Lawrence quickly spread his hands: “Our people are fine. But the Vanished took Anomaly 099. That is the Doll spirit coffin. I suspect that ghost ship came for the Doll spirit coffin.”

“The Vanished took Anomaly 099?” Vanna frowned. Then she asked: “And after that? It just let you go?”

“Y-yes,” Lawrence grew nervous as well and faintly felt he had guessed something. “Inquisitor, recently in the city… did something happen…”

“…There is no harm in telling you, since it now seems your ‘contact’ may be deeper than ours,” Vanna sighed and looked at the old captain. “Captain Lawrence, you may not be the only person who has dealt with the Vanished lately. Let us find a quiet place. I need to know more.”